Engaging with the alumni community

Discover how you can tap into the collective power of our global alumni community.

Our alumni community consists of over 270,000 former students based all over the world, working in a broad range of industries. It takes a coordinated approach to serve our community effectively and to purposefully involve alumni in our vision to offer education without boundaries.

The Alumni and Fundraising Office manages the relationship between the alumni community and the University of Greenwich. We are responsible for:

  • Updating alumni information – we maintain the alumni database on behalf of the university as a single source of accurate alumni data, ensuring the latest contact details and preferences are recorded in accordance with our alumni privacy notice.
  • Communicating with alumni – we share news, events and research through our monthly newsletter and regular communication to recent graduates.
  • Identifying partners and alumni volunteers – we connect alumni who want to give their time to curriculum development, advisory boards or as speakers and mentors who support students.
  • Fundraising – we ask alumni to donate to scholarships, bursaries, student projects, and much more.
  • Alumni events – we organise alumni events and work with Faculty to collaborate on their events.
  • Graduate Outcomes – we keep in touch with recent graduates and ensure their contact details are up to date to support the Graduate Outcomes Survey.
  • Sharing alumni achievements – we showcase and celebrate alumni in our Greenwich Portraits and Greenwich Snapshots.
  • Thanking our supporters – we publish an annual supporter roll acknowledging and thanking our donors and volunteers alongside The 1890.

Below are frequent requests we receive from colleagues to help you the with next steps.

How can alumni support students?

We connect alumni and students through Ask Alumni+

Ask Alumni+ is an online community that allows students to broaden their networks, ask for career insights, and develop mentoring relationships with alumni. In collaboration with the Employability and Apprenticeships team, Ask Alumni+ is also the home to the university’s Career Mentoring scheme.

We ask that staff let students know about this resource and staff can also join! Once you’re a member, you can:

  • Search the Ask Alumni+ directory.
  • Seek advice from industry professionals.
  • Establish online communities/groups with students and alumni.
  • Share news and post alumni opportunities.
We help students (and staff) to fundraise

Do you know of a student who has an idea that will benefit the student community, university, or our wider community? Students can fund their project through the university's crowdfunding platform and reach an audience who care about Greenwich. We can provide all the tools and guidance you need to succeed.

Find out more and apply by visiting giving.gre.ac.uk. Email alumni@gre.ac.uk if you have any questions.

I want to share news with alumni

Social media

We communicate most frequently with alumni via our social media channels, and we welcome suggestions from staff who wish to share news or information with alumni via Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.

As staff, you can also join Ask Alumni+ and post to the platform directly – there you can share your news with over 6,500 members. This is especially useful for career-related content.

Quarterly newsletter

One of the ways we continue to strengthen the institutional relationship with alumni is through a quarterly newsletter which we typically send on the second Wednesday of the month. Alumni can easily opt out of communications, so it is essential that messaging is relevant and offers value to the reader.

Below are some examples of the content we can consider for inclusion:

  • Alumni stories such as achievements and involvement with the university.
  • University or faculty news.
  • Events promotion prioritising alumni-friendly events in the evening or during the weekend.
  • Meaningful volunteer opportunities such as mentoring or speaking on an alumni panel.
  • Exclusive alumni benefits.

Additionally, if you have specific opportunities for recent graduates, we also send a regular recent graduate bulletin. Submissions we will consider are job opportunities, events, and other support/services.

If you’d like to submit content, please email alumni@gre.ac.uk with a 40-word summary and link to further details. The deadline for submission is one week before the newsletter goes out.

Standalone and targeted communication

We may recommend standalone and targeted communications for strategic projects. Please email alumni@gre.ac.uk and we will organise a time to discuss.

For any agreed standalone and targeted communications, we require 6 weeks’ notice – this includes 2 weeks to interrogate the data and send the communication, followed by 4 weeks for alumni to respond.

I want to identify alumni volunteers and partners

Strategic opportunities

Strategic volunteer opportunities are ones which directly support the institutional strategy and/or develop our institutional profile. These include but are not limited to:

  • Assisting programme or curriculum development
  • Joining an advisory board
  • Offering employment opportunities
  • Providing a keynote address
  • Supporting partnership or fundraising

Please email alumni@gre.ac.uk with the following information and we will organise a time to discuss.

For an agreed projects, we require 4 weeks’ notice from when you need alumni confirmed by. Please note that we may not be able to find alumni who meet your specific requirements.

Other opportunities

If you are looking for alumni to participate in smaller events, such as an industry panel for current students or to support a recruitment event like Open Day, please join Ask Alumni+ to identify and contact potential alumni speakers.

Staff can post their opportunities in the volunteer communities, including the Alumni Volunteer Community and the International: Alumni Volunteers community.

These communities are for alumni interested in supporting Greenwich students through a range of virtual and in-person activities across the year. Alumni can view new and upcoming volunteer opportunities as they’re posted and reach out to staff. As staff, you can also search in the volunteer communities for alumni who have offered help and reach out to specific individuals.

We will also share opportunities on the alumni volunteering page which we promote via social media and the monthly newsletter.

I want to invite alumni to an event

We will include events in the monthly newsletter; however, we may consider sending a targeted invite if your event is an alumni event/reunion or if it is an event on a weekday (after 5pm) or weekend (any time).

Please email alumni@gre.ac.uk with the following information and we will organise a time to discuss.

For any agreed communications, we require 6 weeks’ notice – this includes 2 weeks to interrogate the data and send the communication, followed by 4 weeks for alumni to register.

In some instances, we may be able to manage RSVPs and on-the-day registrations as well as identify and thank alumni volunteers.

I want to review alumni information / data

You may need to periodically review alumni data to gain a better understanding of alumni. Please note that we do not share alumni contact details.

Please email alumni@gre.ac.uk with the following information and we will organise a time to discuss.

We typically need 4 weeks' notice for data review requests.

I want advice on working with alumni

We can provide a range of advice and guidance and share best practice. Collaborating with other teams allows all of us to maximise resources and opportunities. We welcome learning more about your team.

Please see below the contact for relevant teams:

I want to find out more about fundraising

We can support you to accept donations by conducting due diligence, producing gift agreements, liaising with donors, and collating impact.

We also fundraise for strategic priorities and can provide advice for anyone hoping to raise philanthropic income, including via Trusts and Foundations. Please contact fundraising@gre.ac.uk if you would like to find out more.

If you have a project that requires anywhere from £100 to £2,000, you can consider putting in an application to use our free crowdfunding platform. Find out if your project meets the requirements at giving.gre.ac.uk.

Any questions?

If your question hasn’t been covered, please email alumni@gre.ac.uk in the first instance.

Ask Alumni+

Grow your professional network or mentor a current student via our online community.

Giving to Greenwich

Join our growing community of supporters who empower and enable our students to seize every opportunity possible.

Contact us

Find out how to contact the Alumni Team and browse our frequently asked questions.